| 6
4 loss; falling one-half on those who obtained the entire stock of
credit.]

[Footnote 224: _Macarthur's Present State, &c._ pp. 47, 49.]

[Footnote 225: "They should have increased the barriers between him and
the convict; and in those investigations they should have leaned towards
him (the master), even at the expense of legal justice: his character
should have been rendered sacred in the eyes of the convict."--_Henderson's
Observations_, p. 12.]

SECTION XX.

At this era, no one will question the integrity or benevolence of
Captain Maconochie, and it would be disgraceful in a historical work to
adopt the language of prejudice, much more the invectives of a quarrel;
but it is not less important to estimate aright both his opinions and
his plans. His description of the condition of the prisoners might be
easily illustrated by examples. There were settlers, not a few, to whose
care the prisoners were entrusted, who were unfit to govern a kennel.
Low in their origin, corrupt in their principles, and detestable in
their lives--themselves differing from felons in nothing but their
position.

The unhappy prisoner entrusted to their charge, was insulted, coerced,
and crushed. Sufficiently cunning to avoid a palpable infraction of the
orders of government, they constantly violated their spirit. Physical
weakness, or mental incapacity, they treated as evasion or contempt.
Prone to invoke the interposition of the magistracy, they drove
unfortunate beings for slight offences to a tribunal, where the
presumption was always against them. In the presence of the magistrate
they were smooth and supple; but the eye of the punished prisoner marked
the exultation of cruelty triumphant, and his course was rapid from
failings to faults, and from faults to crimes.

In the larger establishments, except where the humanity of the master
kept alive his vigilance, the men were sometimes placed in the power of
an overseer, himself perhaps an expiree; who, elated with office,
delighted in the advent of his turn to torture. On such farms the rigour
of discipline seemed essential to order: too often, the men differed but
little from slaves. Violations of rule were deemed more pernicious by
their example than their immediate inconvenience: to pass by a fault,
was thought to license its imitation. The indulgences afforded by a
small settler, whose social happiness depended on their good humour,
would have proved